


Things Left Unsaid

by Jaybeefoxy



Series: Flufftober Prompts 2020 [18]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Do Not Translate, Fluff, Flufftober, Flufftober prompts 2020, Greg has tattoos, M/M, Mystrade fluff, Tattoos, mystrade, you do not have persmission to post to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27121265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaybeefoxy/pseuds/Jaybeefoxy
Summary: Greg has tattoos
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Series: Flufftober Prompts 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950532
Comments: 3
Kudos: 97





	Things Left Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> a little tribute to Tanith Lee

Greg Lestrade has tattoos. They aren’t very prominent or visible. They can be hidden by clothes, because he was never under any illusions concerning the impression tattoos can generate. Mycroft knows where they all are. Unpeeling Greg of his layers of clothing reveals them quite easily. He kisses the intricacy of the designs. They are all very expertly inked. Greg would never allow half measures where something so profound is concerned, and all his tattoos have meaning and depth. Greg once told him his tattoos cover the **things left unsaid**. Mycroft loves reading them.

There is the inevitable Gunners tattoo, at the top of his arm, in the classic spot to catch attention. There is an inevitability of youth in that statement, a tattoo that either makes him one of the gang or one of the enemy, depending on which team you support. As a young street-copper in the eighties, it no doubt made him one of the lads, included in the brotherhood. Easier to blend in, easier to gain trust. He is still loyal to his chosen team.

On the other arm, there is what appears to be a tribal band, a complex combination of thorny rose branches wound into an infinity sign curling around his bicep. A small blue-fading-to-purple petalled rose completes the image, sitting dead center of the infinity sign.

“The bisexual symbol,” Mycroft observes, when he first lays eyes on it, tracing it with a gentle finger that makes Greg shiver pleasantly. “A rose by any other name…”

“Would get the blame…”

“Pardon?” For a moment, Mycroft is puzzled.

“For being what it is, the colour of a kiss, the shadow of a flame…”

“I am not familiar with that version.”

“Tanith Lee. Silver Metal Lover. It’s sci-fi, Myc, I wouldn’t expect you to know…”

“I am familiar with Tanith Lee, just not that particular tale.”

“Oh, okay,” Greg replies, surprised. “Silver is an AI, a perfect human replica, but he has a soul. Proves he’s more human than humans, until they decommission him. It's a bit of a Shakespearean tragedy, but a very good story. I just loved her poetry in it. I read the poem at my best mate’s wedding.”

“I gather there is more?”

“A rose may earn another name,” Greg went on. “So call it love. So call it love I will,” Greg recited, “and love is like the sea, which changes, constantly, and yet, is still the same.” 

“You are proud of knowing who you are, and you are a romantic at heart.”

Greg smiles with pride at the man’s deduction. _He gets it,_ he thinks, happily. 

Another tattoo on his left thigh looks at first glance to be a sinuous version of a chinese dragon but Mycroft smiles when he realises who and what the tattoo really is. It is a masterful rendition of Falcor, the luck dragon from The Neverending Story. As well as being one of Greg’s favorite films in his youth, the tattoo covers a scar from an incident that could very well have killed him, bar for expert colleagues who saved him from bleeding out after being attacked on the police front line during a riot. He knows he is lucky to be alive.

A fourth one is recent, done so Mycroft alone can find it and knows where it is. Near the crease of his thigh, covered with his boxers and very close to his pubic area, he suffered that one just so his partner would be the sole person to know. It is a small rainbow umbrella, unfurled, and Mycroft laughs delightedly when he sees it. 

“You’re my personal rainbow,” Greg says, a bit bashfully. “My defender, and my shelter.” Mycroft spends the next few minutes worshipping the new ink, incredibly moved. 

**Author's Note:**

> Go read Silver Metal Lover, by Tanith Lee, such a good story, if a tragedy.


End file.
